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XL Reporter
FAQ: Financial Reports
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| Q: |
How does the speed of XL Reporter (XLR) compare to that of FRx? |
| A: |
XLR generates reports faster than that of FRx. We can show you how to generate reports which consistently generate faster than that of FRx. Email us for the white paper on how to create reports that generate most efficiently. |
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| Q: |
Do you offer trial versions of XL Reporter (XLR) for evaluation purposes? |
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No, we do not offer trial versions. We will do our best to help you evaluate XLR to insure that it meets your reporting, budgeting & consolidation needs. We can offer money back guarantee on specific reports you might be concerned about creating with your new report writer. You are also welcome to send us sample reports and we will confirm whether or not XLR can create those reports for you. |
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| Q: |
How does XLR compare to that of FRx for financial reporting? |
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There are many differences. For Example: XLR parses out each segment of the account string. That means that you can group, filter and sort by any segment of the account thus giving you much more flexibility in the ways that you can report on your financial data. You can even include Journal Entries. XLR generates a fully formatted report in Excel which means that you will never need to export and format in Excel again. XLR gives you the ability to include multiple segment sorts on one report as opposed to only being able to use one tree per report. By using parameters on reports you can reduce the number of report templates that you need to manage. |
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| Q: |
What self-learning tools are available for XLR? |
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There are a number of resources. For example:
- XLR University: A series of recorded webinars showing how to build various reports step by step.
- Tips and Tricks Document: A document pointing out the most common mistakes and error messages and how to correct them.
- Syntax Sheet: This is a document offering syntax to be used when creating various calculations in reports.
- How to Create a P&L Document: A step by step document on creating a simple P&L.
- How to Create a Budget Template Document : A step by step document on creating a budget template.
Online Search Guide : Within XLR if you go to Help – Contents there's a searchable help guide. |
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| Q: |
How does the learning curve of XLR compare to that of other reporting tools? |
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The general feedback from existing customers has been that the learning curve of XLR above that of FRx (because XLR reports on more than just the GL) but easier to learn than that of Crystal Reports (because of the meta-data conversion layer). |
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| Q: |
Does XLR report on other SQL databases, Access databases, etc? |
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There is a function with XLR called “Get Other Data” which allows the user to create SQL script within XLR to pull in data from other SQL databases and tables/fields not yet supported by XLR. Please contact us to further investigate your specific reporting needs to insure that the Get Other Data functionality will meet your needs.
Excel 2003 or newer supports XML and ODBC. So if the other data sources that you want to report on support XML and ODBC then you can use the regular Microsoft Excel functionality to pull in that data from the other data sources.
Development is working on a ‘meta-data' tool (mapping tool) which is due to be released on Q1 of 2006. The Meta-Data (MD) tool would allow a customer/partner to create their own conversion layer for Tables/fields not yet supported with XLR currently. Also the MD tool can be used to create a conversion layer to other SQL databases as well as third party tables and other tables/fields not yet supported by XLR meta-data. |
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| Q: |
Are there any sample report templates that come with the software? |
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Yes. For example, on the Great Plains ERP system there are 80-100 report templates available. Each ERP system has various report templates available for modules such as the GL, sub-ledgers and other modules. The total number of templates available for a specific ERP system and for specific modules within each ERP system varies. |
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| Q: |
Will XL Reporter allow me to one universal reporting tool which will replace all of my other reporting tools? |
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es. However, this is quite dependent on each client's specific reporting needs. XLR can handle all financial reporting as well as reporting on the sub-ledger modules and other modules (dependent on the ERP system). So if the meta-data layer covers the modules that you want to report on it is potentially possible for XLR to be your sole reporting, budgeting, consolidation and query tool. |
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| Q: |
Will a person that only views the final report need a license of XLR? |
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No. A person viewing a final report only needs a regular Microsoft Excel license to view the final reports which are in the Microsoft Excel format. Only people building reports, running “live” reports and doing “live” queries require a concurrent user license of XLR. |
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| Q: |
Can a user get drill-down to detailed information ‘offline'? |
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Yes. XLR allows viewers to have the effect of drill-down to detailed information “offline” which will not require a concurrent user license of XLR.
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Contact us for more information.
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